Tag: the war on (some) drugs

Massachusetts Lawmakers Consider Bills To Set Tighter Controls On Intoxicating Hemp-Derived Products

Massachusetts legislators this session are looking to take hemp-derived intoxicating products—which contain the same active ingredient as marijuana but are not regulated the same way—off shelves in gas stations, convenience stores and vape shops across Massachusetts.

The hemp products, which are generally edible and intoxicating like gummies or candies, have already been declared illegal in the state by several state agencies but continue to pop up in certain stores outside of dispensaries. Most of these products come from out of state.

Some business owners who sell the intoxicating products argue that the state agencies haven’t settled the matter because hemp is legal federally—through a loophole in the 2018 federal Farm Bill which legalized hemp. Hemp and marijuana are the same plant, but this law removed hemp from the classification of marijuana as long as it contains less than 0.3 percent THC— the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis—by volume.

Four bills have been filed on Beacon Hill to bring any consumable hemp-derived products like edibles, concentrates, tinctures, oils and capsules, under the purview of the Cannabis Control Commission or give local boards of health oversight to remove these products from stores other than dispensaries. Hemp products that are sold in dispensaries like CBD gummies are already regulated by the commission. These bills would specifically target intoxicating products being sold outside of dispensaries.

“[Hemp products] face no additional tax impositions, no host community agreements, no recall process, no FDA testing requirements, no age limits,” said Rep. Dawne Shand, a Newburyport Democrat, at a Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy hearing on Wednesday. “The intoxicating hemp industry makes a mockery of cannabis laws.”

Shand, a member of the committee, is pushing a bill that would prohibit intoxicating hemp products from being sold without an endorsement from the Cannabis Control Commission.

Rep. Michael Soter, a Republican from Bellingham, has two bills that would address hemp-derived products.

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New York Governor Signs Budget After Lawmakers Remove Her Plan To Let Police Use Marijuana Odor Against Drivers

The state budget bill signed into law by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Friday notably does not include a controversial marijuana provision the governor proposed earlier this year that would have allowed police to use the smell of marijuana as probable cause that a driver is impaired and then force them to take a drug test.

Amendments made in the legislature this week removed the provision, which a coalition of 60 reform groups had argued in a letter to Hochul and top lawmakers would “repeat some of the worst harms of the War on Drugs” and allow law enforcement to “restart unconstitutional racial profiling of drivers.”

The governor’s plan drew criticism from not just reform advocates but also the state’s Assembly majority leader and the governor-appointed head of the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), who’d previously said the plan would undermine the goals of legalization and was “not going to work for New York.”

Historically, New York has been home to some of the country’s starkest racial disparities when it comes to enforcement of laws against marijuana. For example, Black people in New York City in the 2010s were more than nine times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people.

In Hochul’s original budget bill, a line would have added “the odor of cannabis, burnt cannabis or other drug” as a “reasonable cause” for law enforcement to stop and search a vehicle. An amended bill approved by lawmakers this week, however, removed that provision.

After both chambers approved the changes, the legislation went to the governor on Thursday and was signed into law the next day.

As for other cannabis-related provisions in the new state budget, one change eliminates the $229,000 annual salary for the chair of the state’s Cannabis Control Board (CCB).

That official, Tremaine Wright, said this week that she will not leave her post.

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Florida Lawmakers Kill Medical Marijuana Expansion Bills, Including One To Let Military Veterans Register For Free

Several bills to expand Florida’s medical cannabis program have stalled out for the year, including a measure to exempt military veterans from patient ID card registration fees that was passed unanimously by the House of Representatives.

HB 555, from Rep. Alex Andrade (R), was one of a handful of marijuana-related measures withdrawn in recent days. Unlike the other bills, however, it had passed out of the chamber where it was filed, with House members voting 110–0 in favor. Nonetheless, the Senate indefinitely postponed it and withdrew it from consideration without a vote.

The Senate action occurred on May 3. Florida lawmakers have voted to extend the legislative session into early June, though they’re expected to focus mostly on budgetary matters after returning to Tallahassee.

Other bills that have been set aside without votes include proposals to allow patients to cultivate marijuana at home, expand the list of qualifying conditions for the program and protect employment and parental rights of people who use medical cannabis.

As originally filed, HB 555 would have made significant changes to the state’s existing medical cannabis program, for example allowing home cultivation as well as reciprocity for out-of-state patients. But a House committee amendment replaced its language with a two-page substitute that would make only small adjustments to the medical program.

First, the bill would change how often patients need to renew their medical marijuana cards, from the current annual process to once every two years.

Second, it would waive the $75 registration and renewal fees for veterans, specifying that the state “may not charge a fee for the issuance, replacement, or renewal of an identification card for a qualified patient who is a veteran.”

Sponsor Andrade didn’t respond to multiple requests from Marijuana Moment for comment on the bill’s withdrawal and any possible future action.

Kevin Caldwell, Southeast legislative manager for the advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), said that whether or not lawmakers find a way to revive HB 555 during the extended session, “it has been a dismal session for cannabis policy reform in Florida.”

“There were a plethora of good cannabis policies submitted for debate,” he said in an email, “but as has been the case in most legislative sessions in the past few years, the legislature simply doesn’t want to even talk about cannabis policy.”

As for the newly withdrawn measure, Caldwell said lawmakers “whittled HB 555 down from a bill that would have created a much more robust medical cannabis program to a bill that would extend the lifespan of an ID card and waive fees for veterans.”

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GOP-Led Wisconsin Committee Cuts Governor’s Marijuana Legalization Proposal From Budget

Republicans in Wisconsin’s legislature on Thursday cut key provisions from a state budget proposal by Gov. Tony Evers (D), including plans to legalize and regulate marijuana.

The changes came in a Joint Finance Committee hearing, where members removed a long list of items included in the governor’s budget. In addition to cannabis legalization, other deleted items include tax cuts for the middle class, tax increases for millionaires and state support for children, farmers and veterans.

Evers said on social media ahead of the vote that “today, Republican lawmakers are gutting my budget that does what’s best for our kids and the folks, families, and communities that raise them.”

The committee’s 21 pages of cuts remove multiple marijuana provisions from Evers’s budget, such as regulation, taxation, licensing and civil and criminal legal adjustments.

The actions are a repeat of two years ago, when GOP members of the same committee removed proposals to legalize marijuana for recreational and medical use from the governor’s biennial executive budget at that time.

A press release from the governor’s office about Thursday’s committee changes says the legalization proposal would have regulated marijuana “much like the state already does with alcohol, which would help Wisconsin compete with other states for talented workers and have more resources to invest in critical state priorities.”

The reform is “a proposal that over 60 percent of Wisconsinites support,” the release notes, pointing to a poll from February.

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Trump Plans To Pull U.S. Attorney Nominee Who Threatened Medical Marijuana Dispensary With Possible Federal Prosecution

President Donald Trump has announced he will be withdrawing his nomination for a U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. who recently warned a licensed medical marijuana dispensary in the District about violating federal law and suggested the possibility of prosecutorial action despite compliance with local policy.

While the president’s decision doesn’t appear to be connected to Ed Martin’s hostility toward cannabis policy in D.C.—and Trump gave ample praise to the now-rescinded nominee despite the prospective withdrawal—the shift could give advocates and stakeholders in the District a sense of relief about the prospects of further federal intervention in its local marijuana policies.

Trump said during an event in the Oval Office on Thursday that he still hopes to see Martin placed in another position with the Justice Department, “or whatever, in some capacity.”

“He was really outstanding. It was, to me, it was disappointing. I’ll be honest,” the president said. “I have to be straight. I was disappointed. A lot of people were disappointed, but that’s the way it works sometimes.”

Martin was embroiled in controversy for reasons unrelated to his actions against the D.C. cannabis dispensary, including his limited prosecutorial experience and defense of those who participated in the January 6 riots at the Capitol after Trump lost the 2020 election.

“We have somebody else that we’ll be announcing over the next two days [to serve as the U.S. prosecutor in D.C.] who’s going to be great,” Trump said.

Martin, for his part, recently gave mixed signals about his approach to prosecuting alleged violations of federal laws by licensed marijuana businesses—saying on the one hand that prohibition must be “abided by,” but also specifying that cannabis operators who are not in compliance with local laws are most at risk of enforcement action.

“Anybody who is selling marijuana better have a license and everything in order, otherwise we will pursue action against them,” he said at the time.

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Using Marijuana Reduces Alcohol Cravings In People Who Drink A Lot, Federally Funded Study Shows

New federally funded research into the effects of cannabis on alcohol use finds that people who used marijuana immediately before drinking subsequently consumed fewer alcoholic beverages and reported lower cravings for alcohol.

“We found that across the entire sample, self-administering cannabis before alcohol significantly reduced alcohol consumption compared to when alcohol was offered without cannabis,” authors wrote in a study preprint published late last month on the open-access website PsyArXiv.

“Furthermore,” they continued, “we found that cannabis and alcohol co-administration was associated with significant acute reduction in alcohol craving compared to alcohol administration alone.”

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, provides further evidence of a substitution effect, in which users report replacing some or all of their alcohol use with cannabis.

An eight-person research team from Colorado State University and the University of Colorado looked at the behavior of 62 adults who used both marijuana and alcohol and who engaged in heavy drinking for at least three months.

Each person participated in two separate sessions in which they could drink up to five alcoholic beverages—an initial priming drink, followed by up to four more optional drinks offered at 15-minute intervals.

In one of the two sessions, participants were first directed to consume marijuana in a manner of their choosing and at their typical dose, which was weighed and recorded.

When subjects used alcohol alone, they drank on average two self-administered beverages. With cannabis added to the mix, the average number of self-administered drinks was 1.5—roughly 25 percent lower.

And while not every participant drank less after using marijuana, those who did “reported reductions in alcohol craving at several timepoints after consuming cannabis and alcohol compared to alcohol alone,” the report says.

Alcohol cravings among those who drank more or the same after consuming cannabis either stayed level or increased, it notes.

The study concludes that “for some individuals who drink heavily, cannabis may serve as a substitute for alcohol, and craving reduction may be the mechanism through which this occurs.”

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Nebraska Attorney General Pressures Lawmakers Not To Pass Medical Marijuana Bill

Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers (R) escalated his opposition to legislative efforts to help implement medical cannabis Wednesday, parading out more than a dozen law enforcement officers who support his stance.

At a news conference, Hilgers blasted Legislative Bill 677, from State Sen. Ben Hansen (R) of Blair, asserting that the effort to build a regulatory framework around voter-approved medical cannabis is nothing more than a path to recreational marijuana that he argued would “supercharge the black market.”

As he has already said this year, he urged lawmakers to wait until at least January, as he continues challenging in court the laws that voters approved last fall.

“This is not about the will of the people,” Hilgers, joined by various sheriffs, said of LB 677. “This is going to make Nebraska less safe, more dangerous. It’s going to handcuff the good men and women here that are in front of you and all their colleagues around the state.”

Hansen, other lawmakers and supporters of the 2024 ballot measures have already indicated that they have no intention to wait. They argue that without LB 677, the voter-approved laws could become the “wild west” or prevent Nebraskans who need cannabis the most from accessing it.

The voter-approved laws allow up to 5 ounces of medical cannabis with a physician’s recommendation. In effect since December, the laws passed in November with 71 percent voter approval.

A new Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission is set to write new regulations around the laws, part of a companion ballot measure that passed with about 68 percent approval.

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Texas House Approves Bill To Study Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy And Make Recommendations For Legal Access

The Texas House of Representatives on Tuesday gave initial approval on Wednesday to a bill that would establish a state-backed study into the use of psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine to treat conditions such as PTSD and depression.

Lawmakers voted 98–41 to pass HB 4014, from Rep. John Bucy III (D), on second reading. A third reading vote on final passage, expected soon, would send the measure to the Senate.

The proposal is designed to help prepare the state for what supporters see as the eventual federal approval of psychedelic-assisted therapy. In its current form, it would create a study program under the state Health and Human Services Commission, which would assess clinical trials and published literature into the efficacy of psychedelics—specifically MDMA, psilocybin and ketamine—as a treatment PTSD, depression and other mental health disorders.

Officials would also review U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) actions around the therapies, evaluate treatment guidelines and make recommendations to eventually ensure legal access for Texas patients.

“This bill will prepare Texas for the safe and efficient integration of psychedelic therapies into its healthcare system,” Bucy said on the House floor, “ensuring that Texans struggling with PTSD, depression and other mental health conditions have safe, affordable access to innovative treatment upon FDA approval.”

By December 1, 2026, the commission would need to provide a report to state lawmakers with results of the study as well as “any recommendations for legislative or other action necessary to ensure patient access to psychedelic therapies for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and other co-occurring conditions after those therapies are approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration.”

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Trump ramps up push for U.S. strikes in Mexico as drug cartels fight each other

President Donald Trump has escalated his public calls for military action against the Mexican drug cartels as they face intense infighting and struggle to adapt to his military buildup at the southern border. Though Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has resisted direct American military intervention, Trump has renewed the push as the situation appears ripe for some kind of decisive action.

American troops have not been deployed to Mexico for combat purposes since 1916, in pursuit of Mexican bandit/revolutionary Pancho Villa following his attack on Columbus, New Mexico. Led by Brigadier General John J. “Blackjack” Pershing, the 10,000-strong expeditionary force failed to capture Villa and withdrew in 1917.

Sheinbaum, over the weekend, said that Trump had offered to deploy American military personnel to Mexico to help her combat the cartels, but that she had refused him.

“How can we help you fight drug trafficking? I propose that the United States military come in and help you,” she quoted him as saying. “And you know what I said to him? ‘No, President Trump.’” She further said that Mexican “sovereignty is not for sale” and that she had told him “we can work together, but you in your territory and us in ours.”

Trump himself confirmed that he had made the offer on Monday, but said “she is so afraid of the cartels she can’t even think straight.”

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Pennsylvania House Approves Bill To Legalize Marijuana Sales Through State-Owned Stores

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has given initial approval to a bill that would legalize marijuana with a novel model of state-run stores.

This has been an especially fast-moving legislative process for the measure from Reps. Rick Krajewski (D) and Dan Frankel (D). It was introduced on Sunday, advanced through the House Health Committee Frankel chairs on Monday and has now been approved on second reading in the full chamber on Tuesday in a vote of 102-101.

All Democrats in the body voted in favor of the legislation, and all Republicans were opposed. A third reading vote, expected soon, would send the measure to the Senate.

While there’s a competing bipartisan legalization measure that’s expected to be unveiled soon, this one already has 27 House Democrats signed on as cosponsors—more than one-fourth of the party’s caucus in the chamber.

The expedited consideration of the bill has already elicited criticism from the GOP side of the aisle, with Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa (R), a member of the Health Committee, saying during Monday’s Health Committee hearing that “it’s no secret that I stand in opposition to broadly legalized adult-use marijuana—but frankly, I’m appalled by the manner in which it’s being rammed through the committee and the legislature.”

Frankel responded to the critique, saying “this has been a transparent process” that has “taken into consideration input from every potential stakeholder.”

“My door has been open to all those stakeholders on an ongoing basis for the past two year—the six hearings we had and an opportunity for the minority party to have to have a meeting to talk about this,” the chair said.

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